US EPA seeks to scrap tougher soot limits, critics warn of health risks

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked a federal court to strike down 2024 soot limits for power plants and factories, a move critics called a blatant retreat from one of the agency's most consequential public-health protections in years.

In a filing on Monday, the EPA sided with 24 states led by Kentucky and industry groups including the National Association of Manufacturers that sued the EPA to reverse the 2024 standard on fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5. Nearly 91% of existing coal plants already meet the toughened standard.

Soot has been linked to asthma, cardiovascular and other health issues. The EPA under President Joe Biden last year said the tighter annual standard of 9 micrograms per cubic meter would avoid more than 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, 2,000 hospital visits and 4,500 premature deaths.

The EPA under President Donald Trump's administrator Lee Zeldin did not respond to a request for comment about its next steps.

The Trump administration in March targeted soot as one of dozens of regulations it planned to roll back. In total, the agency announced more than 30 deregulatory measures in a dizzying succession of press releases.

The country's dirtiest coal plants would be among the biggest beneficiaries from a rollback of soot limits. They include the Colstrip Power Plant in Montana, which the EPA says is the country's only coal plant without modern pollution controls for particulate matter.

Environmental groups blasted the move away from the tighter EPA soot standard.

“EPA’s motion is a blatant attempt to avoid legal requirements for a rollback, in this case for one of the most impactful actions the agency has taken in recent years to protect public health,” said Hayden Hashimoto, attorney at Clean Air Task Force.